Back in the day, I played video games on computers and not much else. My mom had recently bought a 386 for the family. When she was at the computer store, the clerk asked her if she had any kids. When she replied that she had four boys, he gave her a free copy of ID Software's Doom:
http://web.archive.org/web/199902021753
One of my friends told me that this "Linx" thing is really great. That it is *much more* efficient than the windows 95 thing our cousin had gotten a beta release of.
I also heard through the grapevine that Doom, the game that got me playing computer games, had been ported to this new operating system. I went to Barnes and Noble and looked through their books on "Linx" but couldn't find anything on the subject. I had done a bit of research on the subject prior to going to the store, and what I found on the Internet, I had determined that Lucas probably meant "Lynx," the text web browser.
But I couldn't find anything on Lynx in Barne's and Noble's. I asked a clerk. They did a bit of research and told me that what I was referring to was likely "Linux" and they ushered me off to the computer operating system section of the library.
I sat down in the aisle and looked through the book, since it seemed *nobody* ever showed up in this section. I read a few pages of a few books and discovered that "Linux" could be considered an alternative to MicroSoft (or, as it was then often called at the time in my group of friends, "M$") DOS." Linux provided quite a few more features than DOS did, though. Such as multiple shell windows, and a choice of shell flavors.
But I didn't learn that then. All I learned from the book was that I should get one with a CD in the back. I bought the book so I could get the CD. I didn't even open the book for a few weeks. I think it was called the Ultimate Guide to Linux or some such. It came with Slackware.
I asked Lucas for advice when I got the book and the CD. I asked how to boot it up, which other friends might be able to help me, and what his thoughts on the subject were.
He walked me through writing the kernel to a floppy and booting the OS from CD. Which was a big deal, really. I would *never* have figured that out without some help. He then pointed me to this "IRC" thing and showed me how to use mIRC well enough to keep myself afloat.
I don't recall what he said he thought of Linux, though. Lucas, if you read this, could you remind me?
Anyway, after a few evenings of playing on IRC and reading documentation about Linux, I ran into the #LinPeople channel on dal.net.
We were a pretty tight group and enjoyed answering questions about our experience with Linux as much as we enjoyed each other's "virtual" company.
The "founder" of the channel, Rob "lilo" Levin decided, after having put up with Dal Net's oddities for too long, that he would run an IRC server for the #LinPeople channel.
We all hopped aboard, and he started a Linux Internet Support Co-op server. He even ran a web page at linpeople.org:
http://web.archive.org/web/199611091449
You can see my name mentioned prominently here as "Da_Man". I changed my "nick" in 2000 to "cj", which I have registered on the FreeNode IRC network.
In my high school yearbook quote I mentioned being thankful to God and the Lin People for getting me where I am today. That still stands :)
Rob later decided to create a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit corporation dedicated to educating people about Linux-related technology. To this end, he set up lisc.org and openprojects.net.
http://web.archive.org/web/200010121416
http://web.archive.org/web/199812061508
"Something" happened in 2003 and Rob decided to re-name openprojects to freenode.
http://web.archive.org/web/200305241746
Freenode currently hosts some of the most influential irc channels of the Free Software and Open Source movements, including #ubuntu, #debian, #perl, #kernel, #apache, #mysql, and my humble #maxdb.
http://freenode.org/
I need help getting the squatter off of linpeople.org™, the original url for the #LinPeople™ IRC channel. I know the person who holds the copyright for the url "linpeople.org", and I would like some help exerting some IP muscle. Could someone tell me how to do this?
The page that lists original members of the #LinPeople™ channel can be found in the web archives here:
http://web.archive.org/web/199611091449
I am mentioned on the page as "Da_Man", a moniker I used on IRC in 1996, and which I have since registered on the freenode IRC network.
Kathy Buckley, I need your help!